Students at Italy High returned to school Tuesday. The campus reopened after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives did a sweep of the premises to provide "extra assurance" that the school was ready for students to return, Joffre said.

A 16-year-old boy is suspected to have shot Noelle in the school's cafeteria around 8 a.m. Monday with a .380-caliber handgun. He was arrested outside soon afterward.

The suspect is being held on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to the Ellis County and District Attorney's Office. Police have not released his name.

Dallas Fire-Rescue Capt. Charles Hyles was spending his day off at his uncle's store when a worker ran in and said there had been a shooting at the school. Hyles raced to the school where he had just dropped his sons off.

He recounted what happened once he got inside the school to KXAS-TV (NBC5).

Hyles said he saw Noelle being cared for by staff and jumped into action. He remembered her saying, "I don't want to die. Don't let me die."

"And I said, 'OK, tell me where you're hurt,'" Hyles said, and quickly asked if anyone else was wounded. "We kept assuring her that she was going to be fine. The strongest little girl I've ever met. Twenty-nine years of doing this, and of all the patients, she might have been the toughest."

He put Noelle in the helicopter, gave her a kiss on the head and assured her that he would see her at the hospital, which he did.

"I walked in the room, she started crying and said, 'You didn't let me die.' And I said, 'No, baby. God didn't let you die.'"

Hyles doesn't consider himself a hero, and said every firefighter would've done the same thing.

"I'm just the piece of the puzzle that God put in place to do this," he said.

Noelle Jones

(via GoFundMe)

A GoFundMe page set up to help with medical expense says that Noelle was shot multiple times, resulting in injuries that "range from a bullet lodged in her neck, another removed from her abdomen to a foot of unrepairable small intestine having to be removed." The fund has raised more than $5,000.

Noelle's father, TJ Jones, told WFAA that Monday was to have been Noelle's first ROTC drill with the Civil Air Patrol and she was excited to be in uniform. Jones said the suspect had been to their home multiple times, but as far as he knew his daughter was not dating the boy.

Joffre, the superintendent, responded to questions Tuesday morning about whether the suspect had disciplinary issues before the shooting.

"A school district can't speak specifically regarding student discipline, but I can assure you that I have confidence that our administration always addresses the Texas education code appropriately," Joffre said.

The district provided grief counselors Tuesday to help affected students and staff.

"We're looking forward to recovering from this and learning from it and moving forward," Joffre said.

The suspect is scheduled for an initial court hearing at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to the district attorney's office.